“You don’t know anything!” Jude hollered back. Suddenly he wasn’t the laidback jackass I’d come to tolerate and occasionally annoy. No, this man was angry and powerful. He thrust his blade forward and Jupiter was forced to lean back to avoid getting the tip of a sword to his throat. “That book is a history book and nothing more. You’re making things up now. It would be safer if you gave it up and walked away while you still can.”
“Is that what you did?” Jupiter challenged.
“What is going on?” I demanded. As soon as Jude had become more aggressive with his blades, I’d turned my own on him. I wasn’t going to let him gut Jupiter without a fight. The best part was as soon as Jude turned his aggression towards me, he would be forced to stop or leave.
The blessing that protected this property would see to that.
“Care to explain it to her? Or should I?” Jupiter grinned.
Yep, definitely crazy.
“Open your mouth and say one word to her and I will disembowel you.”
“If you so much as graze his clothes, I will take your head and mount it over my fireplace,” I warned Jude.
It was in that moment that a shocked and bewildered Piper stumbled through the still open doorway. “What are you doing, Stella?” she gasped hysterically. “Don’t kill him! He’s not that bad! I’m sorry I went to his party, okay! I’m sorry that he’s such an idiot! But don’t kill him, please don’t kill him! And why are you…? Why are you… glowing?”
Was I glowing?
Shit. I was definitely still glowing.
And so was Jude!
Plus, Jupiter stood right next to her in all his red-eyed, Martian-man glory.
Oh, no.
“Who are you?” Piper demanded of Jupiter in a high, squeaky voice. “Why are your eyes red? Oh my god, are you a vampire? Stella, is he a vampire? Is that why Jude wants to kill him? Oh my god, are you a vampire too? Is that why you’re glowing?”
She sounded hysterical. Not that I blamed her.
“Piper, calm down. This isn’t Twilight. We’re not vampires.” I tried to make my voice sound calm and soothing but I was just as freaked out as she was.
Jupiter, who had been missing for days, finally showed up with some great piece of new information that had something to do with Jude. Seth was stalking my property line, truly hoping he could kill me and now my best friend had showed while I held a freaking longsword at Jude’s chest with my Light cranked all the way up.
Could this night get any worse?
Nope. Shouldn’t have asked that one.
“I can’t calm down, Stella, you’re glowing.” She winced helplessly and started fanning her face with her hands. “And it’s really freaking hot in here!”
Jude and I extinguished our Lights at the same time. Which in hindsight might not have been the best idea.
“Oh, my god!” Piper screeched. “What just happened? What did you do? You can control it! Oh my god! For like ten seconds I had really hoped for some kind of nuclear disaster explanation… or like a Ninja Turtles scenario. You can control it! Oh, my god!”
I cringed. “Piper, I can explain.”
“Can you explain without the deadly weapon in your hands?” she hissed at me.
I looked down at the sword and up at Jude. He frowned and shook his head while his weapon still pointed toward Jupiter.
“Er, no. Sorry. We’re in a standoff.”
Piper squealed and then bolted.
She just took off out the door and jumped into her car.
“Shit!” I growled. “I can’t let her go out there.” I glanced frantically between Jude and Jupiter and decided Piper was more important. Both of those guys could take care of themselves. Or I hoped so.
I raced after Piper, lighting up again so I could chase her down. I hoped she was as freaked out as she could get because me coming after her at a baby version of light speed was probably not going to help things.
My indecision with Jupiter and Jude had slowed me down though. I didn’t manage to catch up to her until the end of my driveway when her car hit something solid, a wall that came out of nowhere. Her small little Honda bent around the substantial roadblock and skidded sideways into the ditch.
I stopped myself from going after her just at the edge of the property line. My toes lined up with the boundary and I watched, horrified and scared out of my mind as Seth retrieved Piper from her totaled car and dragged her over to me.
His sadistic grin did nothing to offer hope that he was rescuing my friend from her nearly fatal accident. Actually, it was more like the opposite.
He’d crashed Piper’s car to get to me. Damn it. Why didn’t I see this coming? Except that out of all the tragedies and failed plans tonight, the one thing I had never even conceived to plan for was Piper showing up in the middle of utter chaos and shattering the bubble I had worked my entire life to keep her in.
“Piper, it’s good to see you again,” Seth grinned down at her. He held her like a ragdoll in front of him, with one hand gripping the back of her neck, the other with a sword held tightly over the front of her. She drooped at first, nearly unconscious from the impact. When the hot blade succeeded in reviving her to consciousness, she began to tremble violently. She glanced up and saw Seth looming over her which immediately brought a torrent of confused tears. She shrunk into herself when Seth asked, “Did you miss me?”
“I thought, I-I-I thought you were with a b-bad uncle,” Piper stuttered, clearly terrified.
He looked over at me and grinned. “Is that what you told her? Clever.”
Summoning whatever was left of my bravado, I curtsied. “Thank you. Now can I have my friend back, please?”
Seth threw his head back and laughed with genuine amusement. “Sure,” he said. “Take her.”
He held her out for me and even though I didn’t trust him in any way, shape or form, I still held hope. Against all of my better judgment and recent experience, I still believed he was capable of goodness. And I couldn’t even begin to believe Piper would be hurt because of my lack of forethought or Seth’s evil intentions. It just wasn’t possible. She wasn’t part of this world. She didn’t know these people. She was human to the core and I had worked for years to make sure she stayed separate from this world.
He wouldn’t hurt her. I believed that because I couldn’t physically believe anything else. This was Piper. And this was Seth and his soul was still good, so therefore there had to be something good left in him.
He held her out to me and I started to reach for her just at the same time his sword “slipped” and he sliced open the side of her neck. Piper let out a scream that mixed terror with pain. My heart pounded ferociously in my chest as I pulled my hands back and cursed.
She might as well have been on the other side of the world right now for all I could help her. If I crossed this line we were both dead. My best bet was to stay out of reach of Seth and his minions that were lurking nearby and figure out a way to get Piper back.
He hissed out an exaggerated breath and said, “Oooh, so sorry. That was an accident. Should we try again?” His eyes danced with anticipation.
“No!” I shouted quickly. “What do you want? Tell me what you want and we’ll make a trade.”
“You know what I want,” Seth growled. His gaze traveled over my entire body with lazy approval. He paused at my longswords and the corners of his mouth drew up into a smirk. “Not your usual drug of choice.”
“Yeah, well, some asshole lost the other ones.”
That made him grin again. “What say you, Starling? Ready to give up your own life for the life of your mortal friend?”
“Yes,” I breathed without hesitation. There were sacrifices I was willing to make for the protection of this planet and there were people I was willing to let go if need be. Piper wasn’t one of them. She wasn’t supposed to be mixed up in any of this. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to die at Seth’s hands. She had been his biggest supporter! Now he held her by the blade of h
is curved sword.
What a jerk!
His eyebrows drew down. “You’re willing to give yourself up for this human? Are you crazy? You’re the Protector of Earth! You lose your entire cause if you give up now and die. I will have given up my soul for nothing!”
“Then don’t kill me,” I said simply. My suggestion was obviously the easiest. We all just needed to go with my solution.
The Fallen that had been lurking in the Shadows took a collective step forward and closed their evil ranks in a sign of solidarity for their demented leader. Why was Aliah giving Seth so much authority these days? Was he capitalizing on the loss of soul mayhem and madness? Or was this always the role he intended Seth to play?
Maybe a little of both.
“I’m going to kill you,” Seth promised. “That is inevitable.”
“Then don’t do it tonight. Pass me my friend and I’ll issue you a rain check for another night.”
Seth glowered. “This isn’t a negotiation. I have something you want. Give me what I want and I’ll give you what you want.”
“That is actually the exact definition of a negotiation.” I took a step back, away from the property line and pleaded silently with Piper to trust me. She was letting out all these whimpering, hysterical noises that made me a little nervous for her sanity. “How about this? You give me Piper and I promise not to kill you tonight.”
He chuckled. “Didn’t you already try that?”
“If at first you don’t succeed…” I trailed off and then hit him with all the gravity I was capable of. “Hurt my best friend and see how difficult I become then. Do it. Push me. Cut her one more time and see what happens. See just how crazy I can really get.”
He held my gaze and dug the tip of his sword into the fleshy part of her shoulder, just over the collarbone. She cried out in agony she wasn’t used to. Sure, Piper was tough and resilient on the soccer field, but she had never been a victim of torture or abuse. She’d never been stabbed before. She’d never been betrayed by someone she thought she knew, someone she thought she could trust.
I moved before I could fully think through an intelligent game plan.
I crossed over the property line in a blur of golden Light. I dropped low and swung out with both blades. I caught Seth’s right calf with just enough momentum to cut all the way to the bone.
He shouted out in surprise and dropped to one knee. Piper screeched too, and I knew Seth had managed to dig the blade in deeper with the momentum of his fall. But he’d also lost his good grip on her.
I jumped back to my feet and grabbed her limp arm. I tried to pull her away but Seth’s grip tightened and he managed to hold on to her. I let out a scream of frustration and cursed his black soul straight to Hell.
He grinned up at me and held my gaze while his sword cut through Pipers flesh. I swung out again and this time managed to slice across his back. I felt my blade sink savagely into his skin and draw the blood I was desperate to spill.
His face flashed with pain but slipped back into the cruel mask he wore so constantly these days.
Jude and Jupiter had caught up with me by now. They crossed the line too in order to fend off the other Fallen that tried to join Seth in his crusade to kill me.
They waged a noisy battle around us, but my world and vision had narrowed again to include only Seth and my best friend in complete agony in his arms.
“Please,” I whispered harshly.
With that same punishing smirk plastered across his once-handsome face, he tossed Piper to the side, discarding her completely. I had one second to breathe a sigh of relief before he was on me.
He tackled me to the ground and pinned me down with his body heavy on my chest. His knees dug into my biceps and kept my swords uselessly pressed to my sides. His face hovered over mine, promising me the end of this short life and the bitter failure of my mission. His cutlass pushed into my throat, searing open the delicate skin and giving me a taste of what else he had planned for me tonight.
“You’re too sentimental,” he growled in my face. “You care too much. You shouldn’t risk your life for a weak human that will only get in the way of your ultimate goal. And you shouldn’t care for me, since I want to kill you. Since I dream about running my blade through your supple flesh and bathing in your blood. You cannot win this war with all those feelings.”
I stayed silent. I didn’t know how to respond to that and I had run out of sarcastic comebacks. He was right. I shouldn’t care this much. I didn’t want to care this much.
But I didn’t know how to turn off my feelings or feel differently.
My emotions felt like a curse, or a prison sentence. I was bound to them in the same way I was bound to Seth. I wanted neither. I wanted to forget both of them. My existence would have been simplified exponentially if I could just turn off all my unwanted sympathies and love for this one man.
But I couldn’t.
And he should know that by now.
“I forgive you for earlier,” Seth snarled. “For ruining my fun. This will make up for it.”
I resisted the urge to close my eyes and beg for him to reconsider. If this were truly my last moment, I would meet it with courage and nerve that I didn’t necessarily feel. But I refused to be a coward with my last breath. I refused to let him feel like he won.
He might win this, but I wouldn’t make it easy for him.
I waited for the sword to sink deeper, to cut off my breathing first and then my consciousness second. I waited.
And waited.
While he hesitated.
And then I realized that maybe he wasn’t as lost as I’d thought.
I struggled against his unrelenting hold. “What’s wrong, Seth? Having trouble with your follow-through?”
Probably I should have appealed to his nicer instincts and reminded him that he really did love me, at least once upon a time. But I couldn’t help myself! I was furious to be in this position and even angrier that he hadn’t made this quick for me.
“Shut up!” he barked. “I’m trying to savor this moment and you’re ruining it for me!”
I doubted that was true, especially when the pressure on my neck decreased instead of increased.
“You didn’t think I was going to make this easy for you, did you? I love you. But I’m not in love with you. Frankly, you’re really pissing me off right now and I’m sick and tired of having to deal with you tonight!” I bucked under him but he held his position.
“You’re tired of me? I’m tired of you always-”
Whatever Seth had started to say was cut off when Jude tackled him to the ground yards away from me. Jude hit him with such force that he was instantly knocked away from me. I was thankful to be free, but his sword managed to slice deeper in the flurry of movement.
I couldn’t get up for a long minute. I lay there pressing my hands to my throat in an effort to stop the hemorrhaging while my body hurried to heal. I coughed weakly and blood sprayed from my mouth. My hands felt tingly and muscle less, my entire body had started to cool off uncomfortably. The stars overhead swam in my blurred vision. The millions of them looked like shooting stars from my dimming vantage point. They moved and spun and dipped and disappeared. They truly looked like an advancing army.
I tried to get hold of my equilibrium and focus on stilling them but the world continued to spin and the Stars continued to dance.
Suddenly I was in someone’s strong arms and moving fast. I felt the wind whip around my body, wrapping it in that malicious chill Seth brought with him wherever he went. I heard shouting all around me, a furious voice that raged through the night. But my world had started to darken in a way that had nothing to do with the time of day. Unconsciousness played with my brain and lulled me into a protective sleep where I could heal and recover.
I knew I wasn’t safe. I knew I would never be safe while Seth roamed the earth without his soul. Even after he got his soul back, I still would never be safe.
But in this moment I couldn’t
remember those facts. I wanted to feel hope. I wanted to believe that Piper would be alright, that Seth would be okay… that I would survive this and survive everything after this.
“I got you, Starling,” a voice mumbled around me. It fell on my muffled head like balm to my open wound.
I really was safe for now.
I really might survive the night.
I relaxed into the clawing blackness that begged for me to succumb. With one last, profound effort, I croaked. “Piper?”
My voice was a raw whisper that grated in my chest. I could barely make out my garbled words, but the person carrying me seemed able to understand.
“She’s going to be alright,” the voice promised. “As soon as she gets over the weapons and the glowing, she’s going to be alright.”
With that optimistic promise, I finally gave up my fight and let sleep wash me away. I knew I would resurface eventually, I knew I would wake up to freshly healed wounds and a world of consequences to face, but right now sleep claimed me and I was never more happy to surrender.
Chapter Fourteen
Reality came back in a rush of Light and voices.
I had been drifting, lost in a world that didn’t really exist. There was no Darkness there. And also no Light. I just was.
And as I floated through the endless void of nothing, I began to piece myself together.
Seth had scattered me. He’d ripped apart every important, vital piece of me. When I’d finally blacked out, I had been a mess of separate, fragmented puzzle pieces. He’d cut out my soul, stomped on my heart and left my mind a whirling vortex of confusion.
How could I love someone that wanted to kill me? How could I feel anything for a lost soul and a body that had become a monster?
I couldn’t answer those questions.
It didn’t make sense to me.
But I knew I still loved him. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that boy had all but destroyed me, all but ended my life, and I still loved him.
In fact, it was the only constant, clear thing I did know.
“There she is,” a gruff, gravelly voice said above me.